After all, in the decade before the events ofSept. 11, Islam was one of the fastest-growing religions in North America.Mosques and Islamic schools were going up in every major city. Groups likethe Council on American-Islamic Relations and the American Muslim Allianceestablished chapters in nearly every area with a Muslim population.

Muslim leaders, once a frustrated and marginal group, found themselves beingcourted by politicians, the news media and foreign governments seeking theirsupport and influence. Indeed, many Muslims believe it was their votes thatmade the difference in Florida, making them primarily responsible forplacing President Bush in the White House.

At the time, the word that best summed up the Muslim sense of self was"fateh" - a conqueror. Many religious and community leaders were convincedthat Islam would not only manifest itself in its truest form in thiscountry, but would also make America - already a great power - into a greatsociety. Some even proclaimed that one day America would be an Islamicstate.

On Sept. 11, of course, that dream evaporated.

"...Just likeother ethnic groups before us, we have to pay our dues to this nation beforewe demand that they change themselves and the world for us..."

At the Islamic Society of Greater Charlotte, North Carolina, members of a Muslim Girl Scout troop recite the scout pledge as well as a Muslim prayer after their meeting

MIM: Life but not as we know it- The U.S. government has decided to awards special privledges to Muslims by extolling the Muslim way of life on their official website.No other religious group was portrayed in this way. Even more disconcerting is that the logo of the U.S. government website is almost identical to that of the Muslim American Society's magazine. MAS and ICNA are linked to Al Qaeda.

September 7, 2003Putting the American in 'American Muslim'By MUQTEDAR KHAN

To listen to an audio version of this article click here.

ASHINGTON - Muslims in America. American Muslims. The difference betweenthese two labels may seem a matter of semantics, but making the transitionfrom the first to the second represents a profound, if somewhat silent,revolution that many of us in the Muslim community have been undergoing inthe two years since Sept. 11.

On its face, this shift would seem to threaten the very core of Muslimidentity and empowerment. After all, in the decade before the events ofSept. 11, Islam was one of the fastest-growing religions in North America.Mosques and Islamic schools were going up in every major city. Groups likethe Council on American-Islamic Relations and the American Muslim Allianceestablished chapters in nearly every area with a Muslim population.

Muslim leaders, once a frustrated and marginal group, found themselves beingcourted by politicians, the news media and foreign governments seeking theirsupport and influence. Indeed, many Muslims believe it was their votes thatmade the difference in Florida, making them primarily responsible forplacing President Bush in the White House.

At the time, the word that best summed up the Muslim sense of self was"fateh" - a conqueror. Many religious and community leaders were convincedthat Islam would not only manifest itself in its truest form in thiscountry, but would also make America - already a great power - into a greatsociety. Some even proclaimed that one day America would be an Islamicstate.

On Sept. 11, of course, that dream evaporated. Today, the civil rightsenvironment has declined drastically with the passage of the USA Patriot Actand other antiterrorism measures. Both sources of Islam's growth -immigration and conversion - are now in jeopardy, and we continue to facehostility and prejudice in many corners of society. There is no more talk ofmaking America an Islamic state. Any reminder of this pre-9/11 visiongenerates sheepish giggles and snorts from Muslim audiences.

Yet adjusting to the new political and social realities of life in theUnited States these past two years has also had unexpected and positiveeffects for many Muslims. We have been compelled to transform ourselves toconnect more intimately with American mainstream society.

Today, many Muslims realize that it is not their Islamic identity but theirAmerican citizenship that is fragile. Before Sept. 11, Muslims in Americafocused primarily on changing United States policy toward Palestine, Kashmirand Iraq. Since Sept. 11, the attempt to reconstitute our identity asAmerican Muslims is making domestic relations - and civil rights andinterfaith relations - more important.

Much of this is playing out at the local level. In Miami, for example,efforts are underway by a group of progressive Muslims to endow chairs inIslamic studies at American universities. In the Muslim community in Duluth,Minn., fund-raising has begun to support social services, including housingand health care initiatives for the poor. In Indianapolis, Muslim residentsare opening soup kitchens. And think of the familiar advertising campaign bythe Council on American-Islamic Relations in which Muslims announce, "We areAmerican and we are Muslims." It is not without design that "American" isstated first.

Even more vital, many Muslims in this country have come to acutelyunderstand the vulnerabilities of minorities and the importance of democracyand civil rights. Because we took our American citizenship for granted, wedid not acknowledge its value and virtues. But now that it is imperiled, theoverwhelming desire of many Muslims is that America remain true to itsdemocratic and secular values.

This summer I addressed the National Imams' Conference in Washington andspent a week in the Sierras with 400 American Muslims. I had extendedconversations with participants. Both leaders and ordinary Muslims seem tobe possessed with a strong desire for change and self-transformation. Thesewere some of the frequent sentiments that I heard:

"America is our home, we will not become foreigners in our own homeland.""Islam is about invitation and peace, not conflict." "We have to take backIslam and also win back the hearts and minds of Americans."

It is unfortunate that American Muslim identity is being reconstructed underduress. But it can still be a meaningful and transcendent experience. Theaftermath of Sept. 11 may have shattered some dreams, but it has also forcedus to reconnect with reality and empower ourselves.

There is still much progress to be made. We need to continue to demonstratethat Muslims in this country constitute an ethical and philanthropiccommunity that cares about humanitarian causes, about America and Americansand stands for justice and rights as embodied in the Constitution. Just likeother ethnic groups before us, we have to pay our dues to this nation beforewe demand that they change themselves and the world for us.

But Americans, too, must play a role. They cannot allow events overseas tofoster anti-Muslim sentiments and Islamophobia at home. They must recognizethe insecurities and fears of their Muslim neighbors and extend a hand offriendship and support. The choices we face are tough, but Muslims mustrealize that the interests of our sons and daughters, who are American, mustcome before the interests of our brothers and sisters, whether they arePalestinian, Kashmiri or Iraqi. Only then will Muslims in America becomeAmerican Muslims.

MIM: Qutb's book milestones is regarded as one of the leading radical Islamist idealogues.

Khan's gushing admiration recalls his mawkish eulogy for Arafat.

"...Qutb, true to his preachings died for the values heespoused. He was sentenced to death and hanged by a military courtestablished by Nasser. I think, and Qutb would agree, writingMilestones was his jihad against the jahiliyya that he saw all aroundhim....

Sayyid Qutb is easily one of the major architects and "strategists" ofcontemporary Islamic revival. Along with Maulana Maududi, the founderof Jamaat-e-Islami, the revivalist movement in South Asia, and ImamKhomeini, the leader of Iran's Islamic revolution, he gave shape tothe ideas and the worldview that has mobilized and motivated millionsof Muslims from Malaysia to Michigan to strive to reintroduce Islamicpractices in their lives and alter social and political institutionsso that they reflect Islamic principles. Milestones was written toeducate and motivate the potential vanguard of the re-Islamizationmovement.

Qutb, like most contemporary mujaddids, Islamic revivalists, wasdistressed with the growing distance between Islamic values,institutions and practices and the emerging postcolonial Muslimsocieties, specially in his native Egypt. In Milestones, he sought toanswer some of the fundamental questions such as why Islam needs to berevived? why no other way of life is adequate? What is the trueessence of an Islamic identity and an Islamic existence (he uses theterm "concept" to signify these two elements)? How was Islamestablished by the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and his companions? Can thesame method, which was undoubtedly divine in its conception bereplicated again? Qutb is particularly concerned with this issue of"Islamic methodology". He believes that Islamic values and the mannerin which they are to be realized (read as were realized by ProphetMuhammad (pbuh) and his glorious companions) both together constitutethe faith of Islam.

Relying entirely on the Quran, Qutb uses the concepts of jahiliyya,Islamic concept, Islamic methodology, jihad and Allah's sovereignty,to dilineate the strategy by which Muslims would:1. realize the true significance and implications ofLa-ilaha-illallah, having faith in the exclusive unity of Allah(tawhid).2. understand the imperfections, injustices and moral poverty ofjahiliyya.3. empower themselves by realizing the meaning ofashhadu-anna-muhammadur-rasoolullah (bearing witness that Muhammad isAllah's messenger) -- internalizing his method of da'wah andsubmitting to the will and laws of Allah.4. Through this Islamic methodology, as articulated in the Quran andmanifested in the practices of Prophet Muhammad, which does notseparate theory from practice, and discourse from action, establish anIslamic order. The Islamic order, which is Allah's most significantgift to the entire humanity.5. The most remarkable aspect of Qutb's book is his insistence on anapproach in ‘stages' and the repeated assertion that the need forimplementing Islamic law would not arise until every member of thecommunity had completely submitted to the sovereignty of Allah and bythat agreed to live under Allah's laws. Laws would then be framedmerely to serve the needs of this ‘living community of Islam'. A farcry from the perception that a handful of Islamists are out to imposean essentialized shariah on all Muslims and non-Muslims living inMuslim lands.

Jahiliyya, as used in the traditional Islamic sense suggests ignorancein the ways of God. However, Qutb gives an interesting twist to theidea of jahiliyya. Jahiliyya for Qutb is the sovereignty of man overman. Socio-political orders where men have power over other men, toinstitute legislation and determine principles of right and wrongconduct. The Quran is explicit in postulating Islam as the antithesisof jahiliyya. Qutb, by redefining jahiliyya to encompass modernsecular systems of political organization, is basically decreeing thatall existing systems are unacceptable and even antithetical to thespirit of Islam. Thus the dichotomy, Islam and jahiliyya includes boththe Islamic and the anthropocentric way of doing things, and Islamicregimes and the existing unIslamic regimes in Muslim lands. A cleverploy that uses Islamic reasoning to indirectly condemn contemporarypolitical organizations as antithetical to Islam.

His notion of the sovereignty of Allah as opposed to the sovereigntyof man is basically a restating of the meaning of Islamic faith --submission to the will of God. It clearly suggests, that any principleof organization that is not premised on God's supreme and soleprerogative as a legislative source, is shirk. Shirk, in Islam is theonly unforgivable sin. It means to associate other Gods with Allahthereby denying the fundamental article of faith, la laha illalah,there is no deity but Allah. He also uses it to declare the ‘universaldeclaration of the freedom of man on earth from a every authorityexcept Allah' (p. 48). I have already discussed his idea of theIslamic concept which basically emphasizes the inseparability ofknowledge and practice. It is an important insight which means thatone cannot really understand Islam fully unless one is also practicingit. Islamic methodology is his interpretation of how Prophet Muhammadrealized the Islamic ideal. He believes that any other way ofapproaching Islamization is destined to fail.

His understanding of the obligation of jihad -- struggle in the pathof Allah -- is also a significant departure from traditionalunderstanding. He understands jihad as taking many different formsdepending upon the stage of development of the Muslim community. Thusat the earliest stage it implies struggling to assert the principle oftawhid against all odds. Further along the journey of Islamization itmeans defending the communities right to ‘freely practice Islamicbeliefs' even if it entails the use of arms. He challenges the‘defensive' constitution of the duty of jihad and argues that jihad isa mandatory proactive activity that seeks to establish Allah'ssovereignty on earth. He is however careful to emphasize that it doesnot necessarily mean the use of violence, it includes preaching use ofservice and wealth in the way of Allah. He is also careful to remindhis readers that there is no compulsion in Islam. But if someone haschosen to live by it then no one has the right to prevent him fromdoing so. Jihad, for Qutb is both, the defense of the right to believeand live by Islam and also the struggle to establish Allah'ssovereignty. Qutb, true to his preachings died for the values heespoused. He was sentenced to death and hanged by a military courtestablished by Nasser. I think, and Qutb would agree, writingMilestones was his jihad against the jahiliyya that he saw all aroundhim.

(This review is based on the ATP edition, Indianapolis, 1990.)Dr. Muqtedar Khan is Assistant professor of political science at aliberal arts college in Michigan. He writes on InternationalRelations, Globalization, Foreign Policy and Islam. Dr. Khan alsomaintains an E-zine on Islam and Global Affairs:http://www.ijtihad.org

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What is MAS?

The Muslim American Society (MAS) is a charitable, religious, social, cultural, and educational, not-for-profit organization. It is a pioneering Islamic organization, an Islamic revival, and reform movement that uplifts the individual, family, and society.

When and where it all started?

The Muslim American Society (MAS) traces its historical roots back to the call of the Prophet Muhammad ( Peace be upon him). Its more recent roots, however, can be traced to the Islamic revival movement which evolved at the turn of the twentieth century.

This movement brought the call of Islam to Muslims throughout the globe to reestablish Islam as a total way of life. The call and the spirit of the movement reached the shores of North America with arrival of Muslim students and immigrants in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

These early pioneers and Islamic movement followers established in 1963 the Muslim Student Association (MSA) of the U.S and Canada as a rallying point in their endeavor to serve Islam and Muslims in North America. Other services and outreach organizations soon followed, such as the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), the Islamic Medical Association (IMA), the Muslim Arab Youth Association (MAYA) and the Muslim Youth of North America (MYNA), to name a few.

Twenty years later, Islamic movement followers and sympathizers in North America launched the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) as an outgrowth of the Muslim Students Association (MSA) to serve the needs of the ever-growing number of indigenous and immigrant Muslims who had opted to reside permanently in North America.

Since its inception, ISNA, and other organizations affiliated with it, worked diligently with those who were to become the founding members and future leadership of MAS, towards the advancement of the cause of Islam and Muslims in North America.

Mindful of the dynamic changes that are taking place within the Muslim community and its surroundings, and keeping an eye on the future, a number of Islamic workers and Islamic movement followers decided in 1992, after a painstaking measured and tedious process of soul-searching and consultation, to launch the Muslim American Society (MAS) in order to complement the work accomplished over the last three decades, and to lay the ground for the Islamic effort needed to face the next century's challenges.

Objectives

To present the message of Islam to Muslims and non-Muslims, and promote understanding between them,

To encourage the participation of Muslims in building a virtuous and moral society,

To offer a viable Islamic alternative to many of our society's prevailing problems,

To promote family values in accordance with Islamic teaching,

To promote the human values that Islam emphasizes: brotherhood, equality, justice, mercy, compassion, and peace, and

To foster unity among Muslims and Muslim organizations and encourage cooperation and coordination amongst them.

MIM: An ICNA MAS joint conference theme was intended to help Muslims "face the challenges of Da'wah work and life in North America", in order to help them "live, act , and behave as concious Muslims in the sea of liberal America".

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THOUSANDS OF MUSLIMS TO CONVENE IN HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT FOR THE ANNUAL JOINT CONVENTION OF THE ISLAMIC CIRCLE OF NORTH AMERICA (ICNA) AND THE MUSLIM AMERICAN SOCIETY (MAS)

Insha Allah, the gathering is expected to be one of the largest Islamic conventions of the year, it will draw Muslims from across America.

This year's theme is Family: The Foundation of Our Society.

Various national and international Islamic scholars will address the convention attendees. Their presentations will focus on topics ranging from 'building strong families in the changing times' to 'establishing family friendly society'.

Other highlights include:

lectures and interactive workshops on Islamic life

parallel youth conference

interfaith programs

ethnic food

special children events

extensive marketplace with over 250 vendors

This is the meeting where Islamic workers get their stimulation for another year to face the challenges of Dawah work in North America.

This is the place where Young Muslims come together to share their experiences of one whole year and learn some more tools to face the challenges of the life in North America.

This is the occasion when Muslim sisters join each others hands once again to strengthen their bond of Islamic sisterhood and make sure not to give in to the so called 'glamorous' and 'independent' life of North America.

This is the place where Muslim brothers/sisters bring their resources together to strengthen the community.

In organizing this convention, as in all our work, we are committed to fostering an environment which reflects, supports, and celebrates our collective diversity in terms of age, gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, class, ability, spirituality, life experience, and point of view. In this diversity, ICNA creates a rainbow of unity of thoughts and actions, as how to live, act and behave like conscious Muslims in the vast ocean of liberal America.